Unfortunately the bottom tray of my can of worms still contains a fair bit of undigested matter. For obvious reasons I don't want that on my windowsill exposed to flies etc. So I thought I'd try an alternative method of adding vermi-power to my compost.
I took about 10 litres of unused, finished garden (not vermi) compost, sieved it and placed it in a plastic crate. Then I added 600g of worms (Eisenia Hortensis or European night crawlers). I added some food to the system, just to help the worms settle in, but there should be a fair number of microbes and organic matter in the compost for the worms to consume- my hope being that in a week or two, most of the compost will have passed through the worms' intestines and have been “vermi-fied”. The food was added at the top of the compost, on a knitted cloth, to stop food from mixing with the compost, so that when I 'harvest' my compost I won't have food mixed through it.
Also, I have noticed in the past that there tends to be a concentration of cocoons near the cloths, perhaps because the worms like using the holes in the weave to anchor themselves while shedding the cocoon. So hopefully I'll be able to rescue some cocoons before I use the compost for potting up seeds.
Some references:
http://www.codis2008.ch/documents/posters/P13-Lazcano-Session4_1.pdf
http://www.ecoyardfarming.com/wormcompost/seed-germination-trials-with-vermipost/
http://www.redwormcomposting.com/interviews/interview-with-allison-jack/
Some pictures:
Worms removed from can o worms ready to move into their temporary home. (the cloth is so that when they move away from light, through cloth they will leave behind any traces of their old bedding).
Lifting cloth to show worms travelling through it.
Worms have settled in
Food in place
Moisture cloth in place
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